St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-04-28
A TRIP TO cALIFoRNIA---No. x
iarity of the Emigration.-someF Facts
and Impressions Gathered I'm the State.

or two has been unprecedented since
the gold-mining craze of '49. With
those who come for permanent homes,
and those who come simply for a win
ter's residence, and those who come
merely 'to see what they can see," al
together they are numbered by the
tens of thousands. The outlook now
promises more emigrants and visitors
for the next year than ever before.
The manner in which they come
is a marked feature. Years ago
when Eastern pioneers migrated to
Illinois, Kansas and Nebraska, they
loaded canvas-t topped wagon with
their household goods, put the moth
or and baby in with the goods,
tied the dogs to the hind axle, hitched
the horses or oxen in front, and the
father and older children went on foot
driving the team and what neat stock
the family was possessed of. Thus the
pioneers of few years ago migrated
to what was then known as "the
| West" 1t took weeks and sometimes
months to reach the promised land
and the hardships, the WEAKNESS, the
heartaches and sorrows of such an en-
igration cannot be conceived by those
who never made it.
This is not now the method of mi
grating to California. While some
come in emigrant cars, which are GER
tainly poor enough, large numbers
come on frst-class tickets with a
freight car following filed with the
household effects. There is still anoth-
er class who come in palace cars with
every convenience and luxury that
modern invention can suggest. These
latter are many of them men with
do with East and are ready to please
their fancy regardless of expense. The
pioneers in the canvas-tOpped wagon
were looking for arabic land at SLIPS
an acre where they could make homes
and support their families. Many OF
the visitors to California this year are
simply seeking homes in q genial eli
mate, where nature has been bOuntiful
of her gifts. Therefore while a Kan
sas emigrant would toll on a week OIL
two longer in the heat and dust to find
land fifty cents less an acre, the Cali
fOrnia tourist buys what suits his fan
cy regardless of price. That is, some
do. As an instance, one of the Ray
mOnd party paid last month nineteen
thousand dollars for eighteen acres OF
orange grove at Riverside. Now the
ordinary emigrant cannot buy land at
one thousand dollars an acre, and no
one can expect to get an income from
such an investment. Such transactions
as these have given fictitious value
to lands of all kind, so that the man
who wants to get farming lands at
farming land prices will soon have to
look elsewhere, and even now he is
obliged to go into remote parts of the
state. For the PURPOSES of fruit rails
ing one can afford to pay higher prices
for land, and probably there is plenty
of available fruit land near the rail
roads that for raising apricots, raisin,
grapes and other choice and market
able fruits can be bought at fairly rea-
sOnable prices. But the California
town which has not now a boom of its
own on hand is either destitute of a
real estate agent or newspaper, or
both.
A very large number of people, be-
cause of impaired health or for other
reasons, do not feel fully settled in the
East, and are now turning their
thoughts iuquiringly towards Califor-
MIA. They are revolving the 'pros
and cons" and wishing they could see
the state for themselves. Any one who
can help such to better understand
ing of the state, with it's advantages
and disadvantages, is doing them a
service. And while it is one object of
these letters to give facts, and also
some impressions of the writer, who,
after fifteen years again visits this
coast, he would be a bold man who
would give advice in a matter of
snch vital Importance as changing
ones home. Some one has said that
no man should ever move West with
out he had money enough to get back
East with if he should wish to go back.
A long time Californian adds that no
man who expects to live from the pro-
duct of the land, should buy land in
this state till he has been here one
year thus having time and OppOrtu-
nifty to see the various localities, and
to see the land when it blossoms as the
rose, and also when it is seer and dry
and parched with the annual drOuths
which always occur here during every
twelve months. There are other rea-
sons why haste should be made slowly
in locating here which may appear
further on.
California is very large state,
stretching along the Pacific ocean for
nearly 800 miles in it's extreme length
north and south; or about as far as
from Montreal to Virginia. But unless
one goes into the mountains, nothing
like the variety of temperature can be
found in this state that exists between
Montreal and Richmond, because of
the effect of the great ocean currents
which sweep along this coast, temper